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Jan 24, 2014 at 5:40 PMJan 24, 2014 at 5:46 PM

Before it became Joseph Abboud Manufacturing, the New Bedford textile maker was owned by a series of families, culminating in a company called Riverside Manufacturing who moved the operation to Belleville Avenue, where it remains today.

Before it became Joseph Abboud Manufacturing, the New Bedford textile maker was owned by a series of families, culminating in a company called Riverside Manufacturing who moved the operation to Belleville Avenue, where it remains today.

In the mid-1980s, textile manufacturers, including Riverside, were struggling to survive as manufacturing began moving offshore. But unlike others, Riverside was given a lucky break.

The company was bought by Italian apparel company, Gruppo Finanziario Tessile, the largest manufacturer of men's tailored clothing in the world who was looking to build its own factories outside of Italy. GFT sent a team of Italian technicians to New Bedford to rework, remodel and retrain local workers. This was in 1986, the same time that a young designer named Joseph Abboud was looking for someone to make an investment in him and his design ascetic.

The collision of Abboud, GFT, and local talent — mainly Portuguese workers who knew in their hands how to run sewing machines workers — became the first bright chapter of JA Manufacturing. The brand launched in 1987, according to CEO Anthony Sapienza, who said it became instantly popular, spurred on by Abboud's selection as best new designer by the Council of Fashion Designers in 1989 and 1990.

Today, designer and manufacturer have reunited after the company's recent sale to Men's Wearhouse. As it enters another chapter, SCBB sat down with Sapienza to learn about the sale, its impact, and the future of locally made apparel.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Q: How did you end up being bought by Men's Wearhouse?

A: The brand and the factory were sold to a private equity group here in Boston, who owned the company from 2004. At the time, we were making 1,100 to 1,200 suits a day all under the Joseph Abboud label. But then the recession happened and we had to retract a bit in 2009-2010.

But we survived it. We were able to re-position the company. We were making 1,000 suits a day and the company was well-positioned for a buyout, which is what the investors had envisioned all along. It just took a lot longer than they thought.

So, we were successfully sold in August this past year, and in a very interesting configuration, because the Men's Wearhouse is the largest retailer of men's clothing in the country with 1,200 stores, 600 Men's Wearhouse stores and 200 stores in Canada. It's just a great opportunity to be able to get the Joseph Abboud product in front of many, many more consumers.

Joseph himself, who had left the company with his name, came back into the Men's Wearhouse fold. He is doing all the design work for the Joseph Abboud brand which he hadn't done for the previous seven years.

Q: Will customers see changes?

A: With Men's Wearhouse owning its own stores, you become a vertical organization. So, you don't have to have salesmen. You don't have to have the costs associated with selling. So you really take what's called a wholesale margin out of the equation. The net result is we can trade up the product. We can put more worksmanship into it, more quality. We can buy better fabrics because we have more margin to play with.

And we can sell the product for less. So in fact what was a a $695 suit in Nordstrom's is going to be a $495 suit in the Men's Wearhouse, because there's none of that cost associated and the risk associated with having to sell a Bloomingdales or a Nordstrom's or a Lord and Taylor.

Q: Are other changes coming?

A: We want all of the Joseph Abboud suits to be made in the U.S.A. in this factory for the American market. So we've had to ramp up our pants department, because we were doing sports jackets, but no trousers. Originally we were making 60 percent suits and 40 percent sports coats (in New Bedford) and now we're making 100 percent suits.

In addition, we have added to the Men's Wearhouse stores the opportunity to do "made to measure" clothing which they've never had before. This is where selected swatches are available and you can go in and be measured and fit and have a suit custom-made at a much more reasonable price than what was historically the price for that kind of "made to measure" clothing.

We're gradually launching that option. We're in about 100 stores right now and eventually we will be in all 600. Those custom-made suits will also be made here in New Bedford.

Q: Where does production stand now?

A: We're making 1,100 suits a day and I think the number will eventually rest at about 1,200 a day as we continue to ramp up. We've gone from fewer than 500 employees to 600 in just a few short months and we will eventually be at pre-recession levels. We are making the product here and we're delivering it gradually to all 650 stores. We're only in the first couple of hundred and we've still got 400 to go.

It's a great story. We're excited. We continue to think that we can compete with the best men's stores with a great qualitative product and fine Italian fabrics.

Q: What are some of the challenges ahead for JA Manufacturing?

A: The offshore market will continue to be an interesting situation. The cost of tailored clothing and the cost of apparel as a percent of our budgets as Americans has gone consistently down. We have these mega-companies bringing in clothing at much lower costs and from third world countries and they're learning how to do things. So that's a challenge to continue to be able to make here in the U.S.

But if the brand perception is high and if the quality level is high, then there's a niche for us to continue to do business. And where we own our own stores now, it makes it very possible for us to plan to be more efficient than what the other model is. Because the other model is not particularly efficient. We can sit down with our buyers and plan out a whole year's production and purchase in bulk and get volume discounts, all those kinds of things that make it possible to go forward.

Q: Are you optimistic about the future of apparel makers in the U.S.?

A: There's certainly optimism and interest, but there's also certainly difficulties. It's not easy to get started. But we've seen it work. We've seen niche bag makers, leather, all kinds of stuff that you wouldn't have expected. Folks are out there trying, there's no question about it.

I don't see a boom happening, but I think we'll continue to see gradual growth in this sector particularly as the consumer shows interest. All of the surveys are tough. Everybody says, yes we prefer to buy American. But then you put a $3 t-shirt in front of them and a $10 t-shirt and they choose the $3 t-shirt every time. So it's difficult.

For apparel makers in this country, the small niche business is certainly relevant. There's lots of niche businesses that I think you're going to see come back to the U.S. I think there are a number of folks, young people, out there that think they can start up.

Do we have the infrastructure to support them? Probably not. There was a day here in New Bedford that you could walk downtown and buy thread and scissors and findings and accessories and everything else. It's a little bit more difficult now. You have to import that stuff. You have to go looking for it.

But the reality is that there has been a movement to "made in the USA" and if you can create a niche for yourself and if you can do it better than anyone else, yeah, there's business out there.